Intel goes bananas over Banias

Next gen due 1H 2003

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Intel Developer Forum Processors based on Intel's next generation mobile architecture, codenamed Banias, will be available in the first half of 2003, the chip giant told attendees at its Developer Forum today.

Banias processors are based on a new core design optimised for mobile applications, featuring low power circuitry and are designed to squeeze the maximum performance at lower power consumptions.

These low power design techniques include the sizing of components on a chip and micro-opps fusion, which involves bonding instructions together so that a processor executes a number of instructions at a time.

Paul Otellini, Intel's executive vice-president, said that Banias addresses many of the problem involved in delivering increasing performance while constraining power or "breaking through the power wall", as he put it.

The initial target market for Banias are notepads and the like but, over time, Intel foresees that Banias will be incorporated into ultra-dense servers and smaller form factor desktop systems.

By 2005, Intel believes that two in three servers will be either rack-optimised or blade devices and that only 50 per cent of personal computers will come in the familiar desktop form factor. ®